Trump Making No Plans to Return to Twitter

Twitter says "nothing has changed" with its permanent ban of former President Donald Trump, but he's indicating to his aides and in interviews that he doesn't want to return to the social media platform and all his daily tweets, anyway.

"There's not a chance in hell he gets back on Twitter," a source close to the former president told Politico. "He gave them his business, made it the premier app for news, debates, and gossip during his presidency and in the end, they said 'Sayonara.' So no, he has zero interest in rejoining."

Twitter banned the then-president shortly after the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol, after having at first added disclaimers on many of his tweets and temporarily blocked his access to the site, before later in the month making the ban permanent.

But at this point, Trump appears to be enjoying the attention his press releases are getting, and on Monday, he spoke in several telephone interviews, including with Newsmax TV, where he said Twitter has helped him by banning him and that he's now getting better "coverage" than ever through issuing occasional press statements.

"Everybody’s waiting, and I think I’m getting better and more coverage with that than I did with tweeting," Trump said Monday on Newsmax TV's "Greg Kelly Reports." "I like this better than Twitter. Actually, they did us a favor. This is better."

He also told the program that press releases are "more elegant than tweeting" and that because they aren't issued as often, "it takes less time" and "it's probably a better form" of communication.

Even before he entered political life, Trump was a prolific tweeter, posting thoughts ranging from comments on pop culture to foreign affairs, and before he was banned from Twitter, he had attracted 88 million followers.

However, he told Newsmax TV that tweeting so much also caused problems at times.

"The tweeting gets you in trouble because you’re retweeting people, and you find out that the retweets were not so good because the person … that you’re retweeting is not the best. So it gets you in a little difficulty every once in a while," he said.

Meanwhile, senior Trump adviser Jason Miller told Fox News on Sunday that Trump is "two or three months" from launching his own social media network and claimed it will be the "hottest ticket in social media" and that it would "completely redefine the game."

Others close to Trump, however, said talk of a powerful return from being banned from not only Twitter, but Facebook and other social media sites, have been overstated, and that he's not decided yet if he wants to be involved in digital marketing or a new platform.

However, others in the former president's orbit are saying that even if he used to enjoy Twitter and the way his tweets could drive news cycles and even the global markets, the thrill is now gone.

Another former adviser said Trump is interested in investing in whatever platform ends up being created if he does become involved in social media, after Parler reportedly made an offer to the Trump Organization to allow a 40% ownership stake in its site, reports Politico.

Other allies, however, say Miller may have been speaking too soon about plans for Trump's own social network.

"Trump has solicited ideas from a bunch of people, and some of the people visiting him at Mar-a-Lago have told him he should do his own thing and start a competitor, but even after conversations like that there hasn't been a real sense of urgency on his end," an advisor involved in the discussions commented. "He's not instructing his team to drop everything and figure out the social media question."